Desperately needs work on its story-telling

Rating: 4/10 (19 July 2013)

Pacific Rim
** (out of 4)
131 mins/ 12
Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Diego Klattenhoff, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Max Martini, Robert Kazinsky, Clifton Collins Jr., Ron Perlman
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Plot: A 'has-been' pilot and vulnerable first-timer are teamed up to man a robot in the war between humans and sea monsters rages on.
JJ's Verdict: After seeing posters and trailers for pacific Rim one would think bad acting, good action. However, it is almost the complete opposite here.
In Pacific Rim, we have another silly post-apocalypse story, and although the idea of them coming from the sea is good, this storyline has been overused so many times. Most of the action takes place around ten years after the first alien event with the world almost at its end. To fight the sea aliens, Kaijus, humans create giant robots called Jaegers, which are controlled by two humans whose minds are melted together. The film follows pilots Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) and Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) as they try to put an end to Kaiju existence. The plot although seems very complicated is actually so simple that the main character explains it to us in about one minute. Although you would think the film just wants to get this out of the way so that they can show us robots fighting monsters, it doesn't and we are treated to about forty-five minutes of plot-thin arguing and confrontation.
The acting is top-notch, especially from Brits Charlie Hunnam and Idris Elba who are in the two lead roles however Travis Beacham and Guillermo del Toro's dialogue is incredibly cheesy and includes every clichéd and over-used line in film that you can think of. Ron Perlman, who plays black market dealer Hannibal Chau, is the film's best feature. Although only on screen for little more than a few minutes, he creates a character you can instantly recognise and gives a superb comic touch to his role.
The main attraction is, disappointingly, the film's weakest part. Although it looks like Guillermo del Toro had a blast designing the robots and monsters, the novelty and coolness of them wears off after a few minutes when we still have a whole film full of them. The action scenes themselves, although well set-up, suffer from the same things that Man of Steel's action scenes did. They show little emotion and are so long and dialogue-less that they become meaningless to the viewer. No matter no epic they are, this is a summer blockbuster and you know the good guys are going to win. The action all takes place at night and, although I have nothing against night action scenes, the lighting is poor so you struggle to see what's going on. The noise level these scenes make can be unbearable and you just wish that, at times, you just wish the camera would zoom out so you can get a better look at what's going on.
Although it looks good and has a superb performance from Idris Elba, Pacific Rim desperately needs to work on its narrative.